Spirited Eternal
by Matthieu
Summary: Chihiro makes a wish on a tree and suddenly the world she left behind is all rushing back to her. The difference is this time she's not going to be able to go home.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Konnichiwa peeps! This is my first actual story so I apologize for any grammatical/spelling mistakes I made and for the length. I hope to get better as a I continue. Also I'm a guy trying to write in first person as girl so cut me a little slack please. :P**

The rain cascades down from the heavens falling softly on the roof of a sleeping home. A few raindrops strike a large window at the back of the house. As they slid down the window, they would see, if they could see, the bedroom of one of this home's inhabitants. They would see the light purple walls covered with photos of a girl at a variety of ages with friends and family in a variety of locations. Where the walls are not covered by these snapshots of memories, they are covered by artwork. Paintings and drawings of a mystical world and people. The most recurrent theme among the art was the image of a dragon. The dragon was long and serpentine with glistening white scales and a long jade green mane.

_Brrrring. Brrrring._ The alarm clock yelled breaking the calm of the morning. Sluggishly I raised one hand and brought it crashing down on the infernal device silencing it. With the noise of the evil contraption muted, the sound of the rain seemed to grow louder. I could hear the constant drum against every inch of the house. The warm rain of the summer solstice covering everything in its gentle torrent. My sleepy eyes fluttered open revealing the eyes of the girl in the photos. My long brown hair was matted and twisted after resting the entire night. Half-lidded eyes looked over the room lingering on the drawings of spirits before I managed to gather up the energy to get out of the comfortable warmth of the bed.

Steam rose into the air in lazy spirals as the hot water cascaded down my body. Like everyday in the shower, I took time to think about my dream that could have not possibly have been a dream. Everyday I asked myself if what I remembered was the truth. If I had actually been spirited away into the world of the spirits. If I had actually worked in the bathhouse, had actually meet my spirit granny, if I had actually met Haku. _Haku. _Like every time I thought of him, the image of his jade eyes flashed across my brain and I momentarily lose my breath. And then the anger fills me again. The whisper of his promise buzzed through my head like hornets and I dimly realized I was crushing the soap I was holding. Seven years had been plenty of time to gather my a lot of anger and almost hatred towards the river spirit.

"He promised to come back," I mutter angrily through gritted teeth, "but seven years later I don't even get so much as a sign!" I growled to myself as the soap fractured in my hands the pieces landing on the shower tile with a dull thud. And now came the heart wrenching, agonizing, despair. The emotion I desperately tried to hide away under my façade of happiness. The mask I wore of complete normalcy even though I felt completely abnormal. When we had first arrived back from the spirit world, I had asked my parents about what they remembered. They had given me strange looks and asked me what I was talking about. When I had begun to tell them about the adventure I had just had they laughed and told me I had a great imagination. When I kept insisting it was real they began to get worried. Weeks went by and eventually they called in a witch of a psychiatrist who just said I was a stubborn little girl with a vivid imagination. That's when I decided to never tell anyone about the spirits again. I went to school and over the years had built up an illusion of happiness and perfection and at times even forgot about Haku, Yubaba, Rin, Zeniba and all the other spirits.

But every year on June 21, the summer solstice, the anniversary, my walls fell and the world of spirits came rushing back to me. I dried myself off with my towel before wrapping it around myself and made my way back to my bedroom.

As I finished getting dressed, I spared a glance at my calendar and had to do a double-take to make sure what I was seeing was the truth. There in ink the date screamed at me. June 21. But it was not the fact that it was the anniversary that had shocked me, I of course knew what today was. I had dreaded it all week. No what really shocked me was what day of the week it was. The abbreviation for Saturday stared back at my shocked gaze as I realized that today there was no school and that I had got up for completely nothing!

I growled and sat down at the end of bed feeling even more angry at the day. I was already fully dressed, showered, and more importantly fully awake. There was no hope of going back to bed now. Sighing, I decided I might as well make the most of it and that I was going to go for a walk. I quickly brushed my teeth and quietly as to not awaken my sleeping parents, took the stairs down to the kitchen. Quickly writing my parents a note, I threw on my rain jacket, grabbed an umbrella and was out the door into the early morning rain.

The sun had barely risen and the world was wrapped in a gray twilight that was quickly lightening. I made my way down the road enjoying the feel and sound of the rain. I twirled the umbrella in my hand sending water droplets crashing into their falling brethren, as I lost myself in the memories of this day.

_I wonder how everyone is doing. Does Rin still work at that bathhouse? How are Granny Zeniba and No-face? Did Kamaji every get his assistant? What about Boh and Yu-Bird? And did… _Haku _ever get back to his river? With all the time that's past how much has changed?_

I was rudely ripped out of my thoughts as I tripped over one of the little spirits houses I had strayed into. With a wet squelch, I landed flat on face covering myself with mud. "I hate today," I ground out from my clenched jaws. I roughly brushed what mud I could off myself and continued walking. I went about 5 steps before I decided to close my umbrella and let the rain try to wash off more of the mud. The rain gave me a tingling sensation as it hit my already wet hair.

After walking 10 more minutes I reached an intersection in the road, to the left the road curved and continued to the community park and straight ahead a dirt path lead into the forest. I had planned on going to the park and maybe swing a bit but something about the forest was calling me. Like a inaudible whisper in the back of my head urging me on. Pushing me into the trees. I gave a quick glance to the left and I could make out the empty park in the distance, a nice quiet place to think and relax. Taking a deep breath, I quickly made my decision and stepped into the trees.

Immediately I regretted it. The moment my foot hit the dirt path a huge gust of wind ripped through the woods and twisted around me, ripping at me, trying to push me out of the trees. I opened my umbrella to try act as some sort of shield but the relentless gale ripped it from my hands. Bracing myself I took another step forward and the gale stopped. The roaring in the trees stopped and I could hear myself breath again. Taking deep breaths I tried to calm myself and turn around but it was like some sort of energy had taken over my legs and I was forced along for the ride. The urge pulled me down the trail through the oddly silent forest.

For about an hour I was pulled through the trees until I reached a tree so big that it could not have possibly been there. It looked ancient and towered so high above the other trees that everyone would be able to see from a distance above the treetops but I had never see it before in my life. It was extremely thick with leafs an impossible shade of emerald green. A shimenawa was wrapped around its immense trunk. As I walked over to it I could swear I heard it _breathing_, a gentle rustle in the leaves. I could feel something powerful radiating off it, it reminded me of Zeniba or Yubaba. Old and powerful. I went over and sat under it finding that no raindrops found their way to me beneath the sprawling branches even though I could tell it was still raining.

The tree reminded me so much of the World of Spirits. It brought even more memories flooding back. I sighed and looking up at the canopy of leaves above me I decided to make a wish.

"I wish I could go back and stay in the Spirit World," I whispered to the great tree.

"Well ain't that sweet."

I whipped my head around to see one of the scariest and definitely ugliest things I had ever seen, in dreams or reality, standing before me with a evil grin.

I gulped. I _really hated the Solstice._


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Ciao, everyone! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you all rock! Sorry this took so long, I'm pretty crappy at writing second chapters but hopefully the third chapter will be better. Sorry again for the wait and the crappy chapter.**

**Still don't own Spirited Away.**

"Who…What are you?" I asked terrified. The spirit above me grinned. It leapt down from the branch above me and I was instantly hit with the smell of rotting meat.

"Tsubaki the _karasu-tengu, _nice ta meet'cha," he said with a bow. My eyes widened. A _karasu-tengu_! This was not the type of spirit I was hoping to ever meet. The _tengu _stood an menacing 7 ft. tall towering above my 5' 7'' form but paling in comparison to the great tree we stood under. It had a man's head but instead of a human mouth and nose it had a large yellow beak. It's hair was jet black and greasy. He had a low ponytail that reached down to his waist. His torso was bare and tanned and looked human. He had a sash tied around his waist the color of blood.

His legs were what really freaked me out. The looked like a mutated mix of human and bird. His thighs were completely covered in dark black feathers. His knees were backwards like a bird. The rest of his legs looked like human sized bird legs. They were a dirty tan color and ended in sharp talons. His arms were human except for the large black feathers sticking out of his underarm giving the appearance of wings. His finger nails were curved and sharpened and looked especially deadly.

"Well aren't ya gonna introduce ya self back t' me?" Tsubaki asked me, "I like ta know exactly what I'm eattin."

Eating! _Crap, _I thought to myself, _now what am I going to do? _I glanced around for something to defend myself with. My eyes caught a stick lying next to me. It was thick and had a sharp edge where it had been snapped. I could use that when the time was right.

"Oi! Are ya gonna answer me o' not girly?" Tsubaki yelled

I took a deep breath, and answered, "I'm-I'm, Chi-hiro." I cringed at my stuttering. I needed to sound stronger.

Tsubaki grinned, "Chihiro eh? Nice name. Sounds _tasty," _he paused, "So Chihiro today's ya lucky day. Ya gonna get eat'n by a very 'portant spirit." He puffed his chest out in pride at that last part. I kept staring at him trying to decide when I should try to stab him.

He glared at me and looked annoyed, "Well aren't ya gonna ask me why?" _Someone has an ego, _I thought to myself before deciding to play along.

"Why are you so imp-p-portant?" I asked proud I only stuttered once. Tsubaki looked pleased.

"I just so happens that I'm part of the flock that took over this forest and drove out the forest spirit and _I _have been given the very 'portant job of guarding this 'ere tree."

_Wait, forest spirit? The woods behind my house had a spirit? _And then I felt incredibly stupid. Of course the woods had a spirit. Every forest had a spirit. Maybe I could have asked them for help. I looked back at Tsubaki who was glaring at me again.

Realizing what he wanted I responded, "Wow, that's very…impressive." He looked extremely pleased with himself for that.

"Thank ya, Chihiro. Now I guess I better get to eatin' ya quick or someone else might show up and want some for themselves. Now this won't hurt a bit!" With that he raised his talon and stepped closer.

"Wait! You're a _tengu! _Aren't you supposed to go after priests?" I asked suddenly remembering that trivia on _tengu. _

Tsubaki laughed, "Well usually yes, but that don't mean we won't go far any other meat that wanders by. Now shut up, this'll be over real quick." With that he lunged for me. Terror filled me and in an instant I grabbed the stick and stabbed it forward.

My eyes closed I heard a wet _squelch _and an inhuman shriek. I opened my eyes to see Tsubaki standing before with a shocked look on his face. Protruding from his chest was my broken stick. Or what used to be a stick. The stick now glowed a bright mint green color and looked more like a sword. Tsubaki made a choking noise and another loud shriek. His body suddenly became pitch black and shattered releasing a huge gust of black wind. The ebony tendrils shot upwards before coming back together above me. The image a cawing black crow appeared for a second before fading away.

I stared in shock at the spot where the _tengu _had stood moments before my arms still held my stick in the air as it pulsed with its mint light. And then it began to dissolve. I watched as starting from the tip it turned into little pieces of dust which flew up into the air. As the dust rose it grew and quickly turned into a small glowing leaf. As more dust turned to leaves the leaves rose upwards before hitting the leaves on the branches above. As the glowing leaves hit the leaves of the tree they set off a chain reaction, The leaves on the huge tree were all soon glowing with the same colored light and the light was spreading to the surrounding trees as well.

As the last of my stick dissolved the leaves began to swirl around me. I watched in awe the spectacle going on around me. I could feel power radiating around me. The power of the huge tree seemed to be getting stronger as the power of the other trees joined it.

'_She killed the tengu, what should we do?' _I whirled around looking for the source of the voice. There was no one around me wherever I looked from my seat.

'_We should reward her of course!' _another voice joined in.

'_But with what?' _a different voice asked. I suddenly realized something. The voices I heard were _in my head_!

"Am I going crazy?" I asked out loud,

'_Of course not dear,' _a voice answered.

'_How about we give her safe passage out?'_

'_You know we are not strong enough to give her that!'_

'_How about we grant her wish?' _My eyes gotten even wider. _My wish? Who are these people?_

'_That sounds like a great idea," _a voice answered. This voice was the loudest of them all and sounded remarkably similar to Zeniba. The voices descended into incomprehensible chatter before they all suddenly fell silent. '_It is decided than,' _the loud voice answered, _'the human's wish shall be granted.'_

All the glowing leaves suddenly dive-bombed me. The swirled around me whipping up a tremendous gale. I felt my self get lifted into the air as the leaves began to go _into_ me. The leaves landed on me and splashed like water sending ripples of light over me. The sensation of it was cooling and I suddenly felt lighter as if my body was simply vanishing. My skin was filled with the mint light and as the last leaf splashed right above my heart my vision was filled with a wave of light.


End file.
